ER36 Planning barriers for prefabricated housing (March 2019)

This research report focuses on resource consent barriers - specifically, on district plans and the provisions within them that may require resource consent for prefabricated housing, over and above any requirements for non-prefabricated housing.

To achieve this goal, this research reviewed the 25 district plans applicable to New Zealand’s high and medium-growth urban areas and interviewed territorial authority planners to determine whether prefabricated housing is treated differently to non-prefabricated housing in residential zones across the country. It then identified what any specific differences were, and what actions may be taken to overcome them.

In most cases, prefabricated housing is treated the same as non-prefabricated housing in district plans. In some cases, however, prefabricated housing was subject to greater resource consent requirements than for non-prefabricated housing

It is possible to achieve greater consistency across the country regarding resource consent requirements for prefabricated housing, and opportunities exist to remove barriers to the uptake of prefabricated housing and enable supply.